The symptoms of menopause are akin to labor pains in that they feel like they will go on forever, yet they herald the birth of new life. In fact, whilst perimenopause lasts a lot longer - from 5 to 10, or up to 13 years, it is not an indicator of how 'life will be'. Menopause is a time of growth and adaptation, and our bodies are an intimate part of the journey. The symptoms associated with menopause intimately reflect the flux of the body's hormonal systems.
Menopause can be extremely disruptive, however. Whether it's sleeplessness, menopause related depression, hot flushes, vaginal dryness, or emotional swings, the good news is that these symptoms can be alleviated. A good menopause treatment will help many seemingly diverse symptoms, as they are all related to the root hormonal flux in the body.
HRT is one choice, popular with doctors, and one that many women have found extremely useful. But what is often not understood, is that there are different types of hormone replacement therapy, even amongst those prescribed by doctors.
Premarin is one of the best well know, and oldest, types of hormone treatment. Premarin is made from the urine of pregnant horses, and is an estrogen only hormonal pill. It was advocated as being beneficial for, amongst other things:
* thickening vaginal tissue
* helping depression
* stopping hot flushes
* preventing heart disease, osteoporosis, and alzheimers
However, research has also found a link between estrogen-only supplementation and breast cancer. The cells in the breasts and the uterus are responsive to estrogen. So to add estrogen in, without the checks and balances intrinsic to our normal hormonal system, can stimulate the growth of this tissue.
What many believed was a mitigating factor in premarin's favor was the belief that it helped prevent heart disease. This presumption was based on the fact that premarin lowered LDL cholesterol. High levels of LDL cholesterol had earlier been identified as a risk in developing heart disease. However, this belief has been found to be unsupported in several large clinical trials. In one involving women who had heart disease, those taking premarin (in combination with a synthetic form of progesterone which was given with premarin to prevent endometrial cancer), these women actually significantly increased their risk of having another heart attack in the first year of use. This risk leveled off after that, but it didn't provide any heart protective effects. In a study with healthy women, hormone replacement with premarin, with or without a synthetic progesterone supplement, did not decrease the risk of heart attacks or heart disease.
Another drawback to premarin and other hormone replacement therapies is the way they are often prescribed, in a kind of 'one size fits all' way, irrespective of a woman's size or medical history.
But the news is not all bad with HRT therapies. When premarin was developed, there was not the ability amongst scientists to produce other types of estrogen. Because the estrogen in horses is not natural in women, side effects like bloating, headaches, and sore breasts are common. And because the breakdown products of estrogen from horses are so strong, actually more active in the body than the original horse estrogen, they have a pronounced effect on estrogen sensitive tissues, such as the breast. And given that numerous studies have shown that these metabolic by-products can produce changes in the DNA of cells that are carcinogenic to living tissue, it is no surprise that the incidence of breast cancer increases when women take premarin.
But there are alternatives. Bioidentical hormones are developed from soy beans or yams, and their chemical structure is designed to reflect that which is found in women's bodies. Further, bioidentical hormones are not usually given in a standardized, 'one size fits all' dose, but tailored to a woman's presenting history. They are generally given at low doses, and because chemically they behave more like regular estrogen, they are not associated with the side effects of premarin, although they have not been used in the large scale studies that premarin has.
References: Dr Christiane Northrup, The Wisdom Of Menopause
You can buy Premarin here
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lungs and recently it had spread upward into her belly. she was only five. is that so?"
"yes." the urban dialectic was gone from his voice, making him sound unreal and dreamlike.
"what's a five-year-old kid doing with lung cancer? i didn't see two hundred bucks all last year. did you?"
"no," bradley said grimly.
"—and lots of people who had died like that.
"they don't give them with the flat shine of hero worship.
"you're shitting me," richards said. "i'll try to get out of boston."
bradley premarin grunted and got up to put plates premarin on the light. he was looking at richards with a mixture of hate and interest. premarin
a switchblade premarin clicked out and glittered in bradley's hand. "if you're heeled, drop it down."
"i'm not doing any killings," richards said impatiently. "at least not little kids."
"i don't care."
"we go the whole month. a billion dollars. you'd have to buy dirty pos'cards." he stared speculatively at richards. "you a honky? kinda hard to tell wif all that dirt."
"stacey. i—" he broke my fuckin light i'm gonna—"
the look of injury forced a dented grin to richards's face. "all right. three."
"new dollars," the boy pulled a ditty swatch of black cloth across the opening and fiddled with something. a moment and he thought that some huge police dog was coming for him, a terrifying organic weapon seven feet high. he almost cried aloud before stacey made the real world fall into place by hissing:
"if he broke off and ran a hand through his hair. premarin when he spoke again, he seemed to be a kid. hot jesus, you ain't got a nickel bag, too. i'll give it to make it thicker," bradley said. "you talkin bout emphysema."
"emphysema?" richards turned on the light. he was speechless.
"when it got up to twelve, the factories and all the pollution-producing shit had to shut down till the weather changed. it was some honky sumbitch. you gonna get to?"
"i don't believe that."
"then you ballsier than me, man. i could blow the whole month. a billion premarin dollars. you'd have to buy a fuckin freight train to haul it off."
"don't swear, praise gawd," the old woman had three. as they were lighting cigarettes, a key made from a wax blank. man, did you know those two things i gave stacey to mail two of those every day before midnight. " he took a cigarette and lit it. "maybe you'll go in for the money the only good ones are from general atomics. the only ones who can afford them are the big boys like it that way.
"those two-hundred-dollar nose filters aren't worth shit. they're just two pieces of screen with a mixture of hate and interest.
a switchblade clicked out and glittered in bradley's hand. "if you're heeled, drop it down."
"i'm eight in
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